[General Topics] quicksite:
My response to RWW's STORY: http://bit.ly/9oQysT

Explain! **ARE YOU SERIOUS? No theories even necessary.

The only problem here, I think, is SHORT MEMORIES -- i.e., people (you, unfortunately, and I say unfortunately because I am astounded...

The quality of writing and analysis at RWW is generally second to none... thus I am shocked at how there is such a disconnect here with something so unmysterious and so measurable) cannot even remember events and circumstance a mere 7 months ago in twitter culture where assembly line constancy of data-pushing is all that seems to count.

Remembering? Context? Connecting dots from probably stories RWW themselves published back in Jan 2010? I guess that's off the plate now.

** I will bet $1000 that RWW has a story on the answer to this elementary question** The arrogance of Google's refusal to supply PHONE SUPPORT TO CONSUMERS... which directly translates to a reluctance to put money into something that won't be supported by live human beings.

#2... even worse. Did you know -- or can you not remember -- TO THIS DAY, a customers cannot SEE OR FEEL OR TRY a nexus one in his or her hand before shelling out $550 for phone. And you're surprised at lackluster sales?

Do you remember WHY customers can't do this -- and how ABSURD the reason is for this?

Here let me help you:

Google went exclusive with T-Mobile USA, the carrier who launched Android and the G1. I was about the import the Hero from UK since T-Mobile USA wouldn't carry it (dumb), when all of sudden in January is the announcement they will carry the Nexus One on its network.

I raced over to my T-Mobile store to see it. Here's what they told me:

"We don't have any"

I said: "Oh yeah, I guess it's too soon. When are you getting them in?"

"That's just it. We WON'T be getting them in. They will only be sold online by Google. And we are just the network."

Me: "Right, I understand that. I didn't mean the phone to BUY from you, I knew about buying it online. I meant the store demo phones to just feel how it feels. I'm especially interested in how the soft keys work, vs the Hero's hard keys"

Tmo: "No, we mean the stores won't be getting any to Demo"

Me: "You gotta be kidding me?"

Tmo: "No.. We think it's stupid too, but (sarcastic) 'whaddawe know? we're just the sales guys'. We've been checking with corporate all day long. People have been flooding in here asking the same question wanting to see the phone. They say we won't be getting any."

Me: "Of all the stupidest things in the world. I'd love to find out whose decision that was. Google's or Tmobile's, but as dumb as Tmobile can be, they DO know how to sell phones, so I am going to guess Google. They probably figured, know-it-all-engineers that they are "why should we spend money to ship a perfectly good phone to 1000 T-mobile retail stores across USA when we can sell those phones online?"

COmpletely missing the point that unlike people who do 100% of their shopping online based on 5-star reviews and collaborative filtering, people who get out into the sunshine actually like to touch merchandise that costs $500, and feel how it functions in their hands, especially a phone/PDA/ touchscreen which has all sorts of ergonomic peculiarities specific to different people.

So --- STRIKE #1 -- Wow, I wonder why they didn't sell so many phones despite their being TOP-RATED, can anyone figure this out? Yes. Had they put these phones in T-Mobile stores, they would theoretically COULD have outsold the iphone4 -- but that's a theorectical. In reality no, since they do not understand human beings like Apple does, and thus do not understand human marketing.

STRIKE #2 --- no PHONE SUPPORT, tied directly to HUBRIS (see also Steve Jobs, or "We Know Best" under wikipedia)

I live in San Francisco is neighborhood filled with tech workers, many of whom work for Google. Every day they gather at one of the neighborhood's cafe's and during the mornings, at several intervals, a huge bus arrives, the kind you travel in luxury through Europe on, tinted windows everywhere, climate controlled, wifi. Earbuds come out of laptops as bus approaches and get replugged into N1 phones as they file onto the bus for the 30 minute drive to Mountain View. There are people from the Google Maps team, Google Earth team, Android Team, and even, i discovered one day, someone from Google corporate PR. Generally very nice people when you stop and talk.

In this same neighborhood there are other tech folks like Craig of that list. And so you never know who you might talk to if they have their earplugs out.

WHY ARROGANCE? ANDROID WAS KING OF THE WORLD, or starting to be...

OCTOBER 2009 - The amazing DROID teaser campaign from Motorola and Verizon!

NOV-DEC 2009 - Huge sales of the Droid made Christmas 2009 an amazing success story for Android, Motorola, and Verizon

and those VERIZON 3G ADS were the first sign of the changing world where the teflon coated iPhone, champion this, champion that, was suddenly assaulted, along with its carrier, out of nowhere, for the first time ever putting them on the defensive.

MOTOROLA PUT ITSELF BACK ON THE MAP. so did verizon, who was a late starter in the touchscreen game.

JANUARY 2010 -- No sooner had Christmas closed out... then fresh off the heels of that huge Android success, Google enters the fray strategically following up with ITS OWN smart phone -- having let the droid have its own stage for holidays. Suddenly, weeks after DROID was hailed "the best Android phone yet", it was already being dethroned by what many NOW considered the best yet. NEXUS ONE, Android done right, with best HTC hardware, great processor.

WEEK 1 of this story: GOOGLE WAS PRAISED TO HIGH HEAVEN!

WEEK 2 of this story:

WEAVING BACK THE T-MOBILE STORY:

a Dramatic Turnaround: problems with connectivity, problems with T-mobile customers feeling ripped off at pricing model, "how to use the phone" problems. T-mobile's lines FLOODED, but they kept having to tell customers "we don't know anything about this phone, we cannot service and aupport it, you have to contact Google"... And thus the rapid runaround began. People calling HTC, and refrerred back to Tmobile etc.

The Press in THIS case (NOT NOW, which is my point ---- how can you miss this?) was ON IT: Google, what's up, where is your phone support? ... And the glitter was off. Week 2 stories were about how Google was flubbing this debut, and proving they were a search company who knew nothing about selling electronics.

But google was so arrogant. When asked, they said "sorry, NO phone support." Press said surely you are joking. People wanted phone support and the industry was aghast -- WHAT? no phone support? T-mobile is taking a bath in public anger, and HTC is getting hit up, but what does Google do? Just like JOBS, they say, we will NOT offer phone support.

Industry .. and especially me... (eyes buggin' out) WHAT ??

Google: That's right, you heard us. We will not.

Industry: But all you've given people are byzantine FAQs and web help and email like all the gmail help etc which just angers customers. You can't treat cell phone customers this way. They expect to get someone on the phone. That's the way it works.

Google: Too bad. That's the way it USED to work. We're doing something new here. And you got to break some eggs here to make a souffle. We thnk there are other ways to sell phones, other models. We know we can solve this by being smarter...

--- I DID run into this PR guy from Google's corporate office, in my neigborhood one evening, and i asked him, incredulously, was this true? Were they just going to stonewall this and keep to their plan despite public outcry they are not happy?

(He was really very nice -- and actually one of the few marketing guys at Google. And he reminded me: Google, as you know, is an engineering company, the senior mgmt are all engineers, engineers make all these decisions, they do not think in consumer terms. I accept that and love the company and we do most things really well, but some things are blind spots, and I'll leave it to you to decide in this case)

Me: So they are NOT going to open a phone call center immediately?

Him: I can guarantee you, 100%, that will never happen. They, being engineering minded, will only double down their efforts to make the web-based support solve the problems...

Me: I don't believe this. They are seriously believing their webpage FAQ methodology is "sufficient"? And with smarter keyword detection and algorithms for routing customer entries down more pre-written FAQ's, they will solve user issues in fast responsive ways that make customers happy?

Him: Yes. Well, solve their problems, yes. Make them happy, i'm not so sure.

=========

So THAT's the story -- the PUBLIC REJECTED THIS MODEL.

That's the reason for lackluster sales.

But no, not one tech journal has put 2 and 2 together? My god. You all have regurgitated their press releases as "disappointing sales"....

Before writing your blog entry, did you stop to think: Hmm, what are the factors involved in their SALES CHANNEL that could impact the sales volume?

/quicksite@XDA-devs

/XDAdesire

/htcHUB